Reduction of case morphology is not unusual in the history of languages, especially Germanic. What sets Pennsylvania German apart from an otherwise routine process is the fact that two distinct communities are reflecting two distinctly different developments in their case system—one group, the nonsectarians, is linguistically conservative; the other, the sectarians, is innovative. Therefore, it has been suggested that the internal argument for change is not applicable to Pennsylvania German; rather, the linguistic innovation of the sectarians is indicative of external pressure brought about by bilingualism. This paper argues that the reduction in case markings cannot neatly be assigned to one theory or another; instead, it is a combination of factors acting in tandem to bring about change. Data from Ohio, where case markings have been contracted more recently, provide the link, which points to “multiple causation” as the basis for morphological loss. Quantitative and qualitative evidence is presented from sectarian and nonsectarian groups in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Abstract. The perception of the Amish as an unchanging folk society (Redfield 1947) has long been exposed as a myth (Olshan 1981). The culture's dynamics take the form of rationally controlled and selective change. While this has become accepted as common opinion among scholars, the participation of Amish women in change has only recently been addressed. The shared assumption has been that women typically follow suit. A study of Pennsylvania German has inadvertently uncovered a variable whose usage singles out young women as linguistic innovators, and young men as disseminators of the innovation. The variant preferred among young women makes them a sociolinguistically salient segment. This innovative role of women does not agree with studies undertaken in Western societies where women's linguistic innovations are seen as a prestige-seeking mechanism. The present case is different insofar as the value system does not only ostracize the seeking of prestige, but also insofar as the innovated form does not approximate but rather deviates further from the de facto norm.
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